Using Portmap.io to Host a Fantasy Grounds Game

[Gwydion]

Morning, all. I have another potential solution for those struggling with port forwarding. I found portmap.io several months ago and tried it but couldn't get it to work. This past weekend I was able to get it up and running without issue.

Quick overview of positives/negatives as follows:

Positive:

Should work for most people I believe
Very inexpensive solution
Only software to install is OpenVPN
Only the GM needs to install the software

Negative:

Solution only works for the GM and up to 5 players
Must obtain the public ip addresses of the players machines who will be connecting to you

In a nutshell, portmap.io allows you to use its server(s) to act as the intermediary for players to tunnel through the portmap.io servers using OpenVPN to your machine to host a game. There is a "free" version of portmap.io, but unfortunately it gives you a random port on the portmap.io server which doesn't work for what we are trying to do. What I figured out is if you pay $3.99 for a one month subscription, you can set the port you want to use (ie. 1802). Given you cannot use the same port that someone else has already reserved, the workaround is that you can designate up to 5 external ip addresses (networks) that can connect. So, when you set up your configuration and port mapping rules, you just need to include at least an ip address or two and save the configuration. Once you have done that, even if you cancel the paid service (in my experience) and downgrade to the free version, it saves the configuration you set up. So, you should be able to pay for one month to get it set up correctly and make sure it works and then you should be able to cancel and keep your configuration forever as far as I can tell.

Rather than post the step by step here I created a youtube video and uploaded it last night. Please let me know if anyone gets it to work or has issues. Here is a link to the youtube video:

https://youtu.be/sbG1NXOLprI

In the video I explain that you should make sure to make rules in your antivirus to allow connections from all of the OpenVPN executables. I was able to connect to OpenVPN but no one could connect to my table until I created rules allowing the connections. Don't forget that step!

I hope this helps others get connected. Keep me posted. Happy Gaming!

[Gwydion]

I know this is an old thread, but I had someone using this for quite some time who it worked for. Can we consider adding this to the portforward alternatives thread? Thanks.

[Trenloe]

Can we consider adding this to the portforward alternatives thread?

Due consideration given.

[Gwydion]

Excellent! Thanks...

[truyenchuth]

Thank you!

[Pernille]

We have massive problems with port 1802 forwarding, so tried this Portmap.io solution (Sincerely thank you for the great instruction video ) and paid the $3.99 - and followed the video meticulously. Many times. And everything seems to work correctly on my machine, but players still can't log in and just get the "cannot connect to host" error all the time. OpenVPN is started as administrator and whitelisted in antivirus. That it won't work is driving us half insane

Can someone spot anything here that might cause the trouble?

Setup looks like this (friends IPs changed for security):

1.jpg

2.jpg

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[Gwydion]

I'm reviewing now. Let me see if I notice anything.

[Gwydion]

I think your attachments are still pending approval. Can you join my discord and post the screenshots and I"ll see if I can troubleshoot? Might be away for a bit but will review tonight.

https://discord.gg/ZbjZnh8

[Gwydion]

Couple questions.

Can you get openvpn to connect at all but your players can't connect to openvpn?

Just trying to understand if the connection is working at all first. Make sure you and the players have whitelisted all the open vpn executables.

I also see that one of the ip addresses you are including is an internal ip address. I believe you need to include the external ip addresses.

Still happy to try to help if you want to dm with me on my discord. Hope we can get this working.